About Us

About Us

AKOSolutionzis a company that specialises in culturally centred, strengths based tools, plans, strategies and programmes for positive behaviour change.

The Māori concept of AKO, meaning to teach and to learn, describes the interchangeable roles and the dynamics that occur when two or more people meet to share their skills, knowledge and experience. This powerful concept underpins our approach to working with people.

Our aim withTe AraWhakamana: TheMana EnhancementModel is to transform practice through the use of an holistic, culturally effective and practical approach that is informed by leading edge research, thinking and practice.These innovative combinations allow for transformative results, which are experienced by practitioners, recipients and their whānau (families).

Nigel is an Educational Consultant and Behaviour Support Specialist for People with Disabilities who in his career has taught in a variety of mainstream educational settings including three years as a teacher of special classes. Over the last 18 years he has worked as a Resource Teacher of Learning and Behaviour (RTLB) in South Auckland, on the East Coast of the North Island, and in West Auckland.

Working alongside Māori students, their whānau and communities has given Nigel an appreciation of the depth and strengths of Te Ao Māori (the Māori world view) and the importance of incorporating this knowledge into any strategies and approaches used to create opportunities for positive behaviour change.

Much of Nigel's work has been in addressing situations where students have either been bullied or are themselves involved in bullying. While bullying is usually a complex situation he uses the Mana Enhancement approach that is simple to effect and has great rates of success.

Most recently Nigel has led a multi-disciplinary team that has developed a uniquely New Zealand model for behaviour change. Te Ara Whakamana: The Mana Enhancement Model provides a tool that has become a crucial part of the ongoing training of RTLB and has been adopted by a number of schools and counselling agencies as a key tool in their work with families, individual adults and young people.

Susan Ngawati Osborne Ngāti Hine/Te Uri Taniwha/Ngapuhi

BA Education/Māori Studies

Susan has a strong background in social and Māori community work. She became interested in students presenting with challenging behaviour in 1995 when working with a group of predominantly Māori year 7-8 students brought together in one class for a year to alleviate the problem behaviours for their respective teachers. Inspired by this experience, she went on to gain a double major degree in Education and Māori Studies through Massey University.

Susan ran a number of Treaty of Waitangi workshops in organisations and multi-cultural communities before being approached to work in the Domestic and Sexual Violence arena in West Auckland.

Susan worked for seven years front line with Māori whānau dealing with violence and abuse, including sexual violence, and concurrently held the Ministry of Social Development role of Child Advocate for Tamariki/Rangatahi in West Auckland. She currently sits as a Pou Awha (advisor) for Ngā Kaitiaki Mauri National Sexual Violence network.

In recent years Susan has been applying cultural knowledge through Te Ara Whakamana: The Mana Enhancement model with tamariki, rangatahi and whānau (children, teenagers and families) with transformative results.

She now manages special projects in the Kaupapa Māori Sexual Violence sector and presents and trains in Te Ara Whakamana: The Mana Enhancement Model alongside her husband Nigel. Her vision is to develop a Te Ara Whakamana: Mana Enhancement Community of Practice on a local, national and international scale.

* There are six recognised authors of Mana Potential: Nigel Marshall; Susan Ngawati Osborne; Jude Moxon; Angeline McDonald; Eion Pringle; Rene Seidl. Nigel and Susan have since developed new and significant advancements and innovations to the Model which they have graduated into Te Ara Whakamana:The Mana Enhancement Model.